Simply Faithful: Remembering prayer requests

Thursday

Jul 20, 2017 at 10:30 AMJul 20, 2017 at 10:30 AM

Marketta Gregory More Content Now

Growing up in Oklahoma, I’ve seen my share of tornado damage. I know that brick homes can be reduced to rubble, that grass can be pulled from the soil — that once the winds calm, an emotional storm can start.

So, from the moment I heard a tornado had ripped through Joplin, Missouri, I had prayed. For strength. For healing. For comfort. For peace.

And almost from the moment I heard, I knew I wanted to go there, to pray in the place where unruly winds had taken so much and so many. Six months later, we pulled off Interstate 44 just before the Oklahoma state line and turned onto the streets of Joplin.

Our van was full of boys and suitcases, of tired drivers and a barking dog. We desperately wanted our 1,200-mile road trip to end and our vacation with family to begin. But there’s no arguing when the spirit is tugging.

First we passed what was left of Home Depot and its makeshift tent in the parking lot. Then, we saw signs that were leaning, businesses with blown out windows and homes that looked like they had tripped over their own foundations.

The boys had questions. What could do such a thing? Where do the people live now? Did anyone die?

We answered as best we could and then we walked to an empty cement slab and held hands and offered a simple prayer. The van was nearly silent as we drove out of town and back onto the interstate. We were each in our own worlds, each processing what we had seen.

By the time we reached the state line, the volume had risen again. The topic had changed, but the next time we prayed before a meal Benjamin remembered. And he has remembered every day, at every meal since then.

“Thank you for this food and help the people that got twisted,” says the one who just turned 5 at the time, and who is now 9. I never imagined he’d even remember pulling off the highway 4 years later, much less be continuing to pray. But standing shoulder-to-shoulder with your prayer request has a way of changing you no matter your age.

It makes it personal.

It makes it real.

And in Benjamin’s case, it makes it lasting.

— Marketta Gregory is a former religion reporter who can’t stop writing about what is sacred and holy. She is a native of Oklahoma but makes her home in Rochester, New York, with her husband, two crazy boys and one very vocal Pomeranian. Find more of her writing at SimplyFaithful.com or check out her book, “Simply Faithful: Finding the Sacred in Everyday Life.”